Author: David Henson I loved the house next door. She was a bungalow. I’m a brick ranch. I fell in love with her after becoming sentient though I don’t remember exactly when that was. Achieving self-awareness isn’t like flipping a switch. It’s more like gradually turning ...

Author: DJ Lunan I know these are my earthquakes. My greed, guilt, and responsibility. Fair dues. But I am not learning a lesson. Earth is being terminated. With each tremor, our house groans like a war-weary galleon. Imperceptibly minute specks of rubble, wood dust, and ...

Author: Amanda Hard Scarlet and orange leaves, chips of autumnal tree paint, fell on dry grass as the phoenix in my bird bath lifted his tired eyes. “Damned,” he squawked, before flashing bright white, a blur of sparks and feathers of gray ash that floated to the ground ...

Author: Mishal Imaan Syed I woke to a ceiling gilded with stars. “She’s awake,” someone murmured. I rubbed the dreams from my eyes, trying to make out the fluttering form of someone. “Who are you?” I asked. “A creature of the night.” The voice was pure velvet and silver ...

Author: Mandy Szewczuk We saw it coming, our apocalypse, through binoculars. It didn’t burn out our eyes, the way movies told us it would because it wasn’t a mushroom cloud or column of incandescent fire. What we saw, standing on top of our apartment building because when ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer The rain has given up falling in drops and now lambastes the windscreen in heavy punched lumps. The manic whip of the wipers suddenly stops and the engine dies and she eases the car, tempering the brake with her foot until the squeal of ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer To our right, there are five rows of aircars just hanging there. In addition, there are six layers below and five above. All sleek, shining, and not moving. “Look at it. Six by twelve, going nowhere.” Tish’s right. We picked the wrong ...

Author: Richard M. O'Donnell, Sr. To: Four-Eight-Nine From: You Know Subject: Last Request Dear FEN, Pour my ashes under the face-down headstone. You know the one. The one we pushed over that night and danced on, the one in the Last Woods on the forgotten farm we ...

Author: Franco Amati It took nine dates for Jolene to let me inhabit her mind. With a woman as intriguing as her, it’s tempting to sneak in without permission. But trust me, it’s always more enjoyable with permission. I snuck into the head of the last girl I dated, and ...

Author: Marlin Bressi Souls don't have asses, but the courtroom has wooden benches just the same because God likes it that way, likes things just so, and in His Infinite Wisdom has decided that this place ought to look like the set of a Perry Mason rerun. Like the others ...

Author: R. J. Erbacher I was oppressed by the constraint of the unyielding humidity and the dust which coated every inch of this installation despite the scrubbers working full time. Outside the dull sodium lights that lit up the hallway seeped in through gaps in the ...

Author: Delvon T. Mattingly For weeks, all I did was listen, my eyes closed. My body grew numb months ago, down to my fingers and toes, unable to recall the last time I saw my phalanges, or my body at that matter. But I wasn’t going to stop until I found my person, even if ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer Daena Nova stares through the recycled molecules in the air and laments that she hates flying even more than her pores do. But business is business and she has a man to meet. The schematics held on the flash-drive that’s wedged into the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer You can stalk the worlds like death incarnate, should you have the technology and the psychological issues necessary. You might even descend upon worlds in fire and fury in an attempt to become some sort of manifest divinity to the ...

Author: Michael Mieher There are only two of us now. We are starving. We will have to risk the long trek to find shelter, sustenance, spare parts... anything of use. I am so blessed that the love of my life and I, from our first meeting on our school's playground, ...

Author: Elaine Thomas Zzzzzt! Itty bitty pretty kitty, my ass. That cat is a monster. Why she constantly murmurs baby talk at him is beyond me. Yes, I may be jealous. Sure, I wish I could cuddle and be her pet. But it cannot be. Even if I had a form that could ...

Author: David Barber Sometimes spacers come back to see us. Anyone chosen for a visit gets notified, which is why Vera is waiting in a tidy house, with a home-baked Victoria sponge and wearing her sleeveless cotton print dress with the sage-green leaf pattern, because ...

Author: DJ Lunan “I just see me, Ma’am”, I reply into her bathroom mirror through clenched teeth, hoping I can preserve my volley of lies deep inside, hermetically sealed in a light-resistant jar, preserved in termite vinegar and moon-salt. But this mirror doesn’t lie. I ...